Another day, another roster move for the Cubs pitching staff
Another day, another roster move for the Cubs.
And once again, the pitching depth is tested as the bullpen is hit with another loss.
The Cubs placed Adbert Alzolay on the 15-day IL Monday with a right forearm strain and recalled José Cuas from Triple-A Iowa.
Alzolay just picked up the save in Sunday’s win over the Pirates, though he did surrender a 2-run homer at the outset of the 10th inning.
It was already the 6th homer of the season he has allowed, in only 17.1 innings. He let up only 5 longballs in 64 innings all of last season.
Alzolay, 29, began the year as the Cubs’ closer before experiencing issues in the 9th inning. He is just 4-for-9 in save situations this season, including Sunday’s outing.
In total, Alzolay is 1-4 with a 4.67 ERA and 1.44 WHIP. He was 22-for-25 in save situations a year ago while carrying a 2.67 ERA and 1.02 WHIP.
The Cubs entered the year with Alzolay, Héctor Neris, Julian Merryweather, Mark Leiter Jr. and Yency Almonte as the main high-leverage arms in the bullpen. Now Alzolay, Merryweather and Almonte are all on the IL.
In fact, only 3 members of the Opening Day bullpen remain on the active roster: Neris, Leiter and Cuas. Drew Smyly is also on the IL and Luke Little is in the minors.
Cuas has been up-and-down the last couple of days. He was initially recalled from Iowa on Saturday when Almonte went on the IL, then sent down Sunday to make room on the roster for Kyle Hendricks’ return.
Now, Cuas is back and looking to improve on his season numbers (9.00 ERA, 1.75 WHIP). He was a big piece of the bullpen down the stretch last year with a 3.04 ERA, 1 save and 6 holds in 27 outings after being acquired in a trade with the Royals.
During Monday’s 2-0 loss to the Braves in Atlanta, the Cubs needed only 1 reliever — Hayden Wesneski tossed 3 frames in relief of starter Shota Imanaga.